About 30 minutes prior to Nation Building
Minister D. M. Dasanayake being hit by a powerful roadside
claymore mine blast close to Ja-ela police station Tuesday
(January 8) morning, I phoned a contact of mine and asked for a
list of assassinated parliamentarians.

I received a two-page list which placed UNP
Colombo District MP Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, assassinated by a
gunman from Gurunagar, Jaffna on January 1, at the Kochchikade
kovil as the 30th victim. But by the time I received the list at
about 5.40 pm, Dasanayake who was no stranger to violence had
been added to the list.

The figure is far short of the actual number of
MPs killed.

Although it correctly listed Joseph
Pararajasingham assassinated on December 25, 2005 in Batticaloa
(National List), Nadaraja Raviraj in Colombo (Jaffna District)
and Thiyagarajah Maheswaran (Colombo District) as the last three
victims, a glance through the list revealed that it didn’t
include many other victims (parliamentarians). Despite it being
maintained by Parliament, it hadn’t been complete and strangely
avoided parliamentarians assassinated during the JVP inspired
second insurgency; Those who were felled by the Deshapremi
Janatha Viyaparaya, the dreaded military wing of the JVP and
faceless killers who may have worked for powerful politicians at
that time.

1956 killing

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, Prime Minister and first
MP for Attanagalle electorate (UNP) had been the first to be
felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1956.

Bandaranaike had been a member of the 14-member
first Cabinet of Ministers of independent Ceylon and held the
portfolios of health and local government. He had been the
Leader of the House. Unguarded Bandaranaike, shot at his Rosmead
Place Residence was the first political victim of a conspiracy
and it highlighted the danger of an influential clique getting
together for a common objective, in this instance getting rid of
a popular Premier who couldn’t be manipulated. The Bandaranaike
killing which was an isolated attack shook the Nation. For
almost two decades there hadn’t been a major political killing.

But once the northern insurgency erupted in the
early 70s with sporadic attempts on the lives of Jaffna-based
target politicians, it highlighted the fluidity of the
situation.

First major Jaffna killing

Alfred Duraiyappah had been the first
parliamentarian killed by terrorists. The popular Mayor of
Jaffna was gunned down outside Krishnan Temple at Ponnalai on
July 27, 1975. In fact, the LTTE hadn’t been formally set up at
that time and Duraiyappah killers had been with TNT Tamil New
Tigers). Velupillai Prabhakaran is believed to have been among
the three youth who shot dead the politician as he got down from
his car. Had he survived the assassination, he would have
definitely returned to Parliament which he first entered in
1960.

It set the stage for a bloody campaign against
elected representatives. Tamil youth made several attempts on
his life beginning with a bomb attack on his Jaffna residence in
February 71. In March the same year a bomb was placed inside his
car. In August that year, bombs were thrown at a carnival
organised at the Duraiyappah stadium.

C. Kumarasoorier, the then Posts and
Telecommunications Minister had been another politician stalked
by Tamil terrorists. MP for Nallur C. Arulampalan and A.
Thiyagarajah, MP for Vaddukkodai, Ranjan Selvanayagam, the
second MP for Batticaloa and Kanagaratnam who crossed over to
the UNP from the TULF had been targeted in the early 70s.

Vaddukkodai MP killed

But Vaddukkodai MP Thiyagarajah was one of the
first Tamil MP to die in the hands of a Tamil assassin. His
assassination on May 25, 1981 was the first major political
killing after the Duraiyappah assassination six years earlier.
Attacks on politicians identified with the then government in
power increased as Tamil groups slowly strengthened their
position with training and financial assistance provided by the
Government of India.

Although the LTTE was widely believed to be
responsible for Thiyagarajah’s assassination, the abduction and
killing of Visvanather Dharmalingham (MP for Manipay) and K.
Alalasundaram (MP for Kopay) in early September 1985 were
believed to be the work of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO).
The Manipay MP was the incumbent PLOTE leader Dharmalingham
Siddarthan’s father. The TELO which weilded immense power was
accused of the double murder.

Indian hand in early killings

Like Duraiyappah, Dharmalingham had first
entered Parliament in March 1960. Siddarthan, in an interview
with this writer early December 1997 (carried by The Sunday
Island on its December 7, 1997 issue) alleged that TELO
assassinated the two MPs on the instructions of its Indian
masters. The soft spoken politician said that had the LTTE known
of the attempt on their lives, it would have probably thwarted
the TELO assassination bid. Accusing India of playing a double
game, he insisted that Indian Intelligence Services were
directly behind the assassinations. He charged that the TELO had
received orders from India to assassinate four Jaffna based TULF
MPs. TELO led by Sri Sabaratnam (Tall Sri) despite being a
friend of the MPs, had no option but to assassinate them. A
local TELO leader identified as Bobby had been identified as the
leader of killer squad. TELO leader Das had refused to
assassinate the remaining two TULF MPs living in Vadamaratchchy.
According to him, the Indian Intelligence Services had felt that
the presence of TULF MPs would give the party influence. The
Indians wanted to undermine TULF leader Amirthalingam’s
authority and one way of doing that was to assassinate his MPs.

Of course Siddarthan was referring to the
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foremost intelligence
agency established in September 1968 on the basis of Kautilyan
principles.

J.N. Dixit, a former Indian High Commissioner in
Colombo, in his widely read Makers of India’s Foreign Policy
Raja Ram Mohan to Yashwant Sinha, briefly discussed India’s
disputed role in Sri Lanka. Dixit’s frank assessment of the then
Indian Premier Indira Gandhi who authorised the recruitment,
arming, training and financing of Sri Lankan Tamil groups was
evidence of Indian’s direct role in triggering chaos in Sri
Lanka. Dixit claimed that Gandhi could be faulted for two
foreign policy decisions-her ambiguous response to the Soviet
Invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 and support to Sri Lankan armed
groups. This is what Dixit said, "She couldn’t afford the
emergence of Tamil separatism in India by refusing to support
the aspirations of Sri Lankan Tamils. These aspirations were
legitimate in the context of nearly 50 years of Sinhalese
discrimination against Sri Lankan Tamils."

Raid on Male

Had PLOTE succeeded in its attempt to overthrow
the Maldivian government in 1988, many parliamentarians would
have been killed. India had to intervene in Male where Indian
troops swooped on PLOTE cadres, almost all of them trained in
India by RAW personnel or Indian military seconded to the spy
agency.

India should be ashamed of her role in Sri
Lanka. The Indian Intelligence Services which had been directly
answerable to the Prime Minister had ordered political
assassinations in a neighbouring country as part of a diabolical
strategy to subvert the TULF. Had we ever tried to analyse the
impact of the Indian action here or at least present our case
before the international community? President Mahinda Rajapaksa
recently talked of his desire to involve India in the peace
process. As he emphasised New Delhi’s support would be critical,
but we should be fully aware of the India’s hand in
destabilising Sri Lanka. Actually India should publicly regret
her actions which created monstrous terrorist organisations
which wrecked havoc in Sri Lanka.

Worst single attack

Since then at least 40 former and sitting MPs
had been assassinated with the September 1994 suicide attack on
an UNP rally at Thotalanga being the single worst target killing
of politicians. The blast claimed the lives of five MPs-
National List MP Dr. Gamini Wijesekera who was also the General
Secretary of the party, Kurunegala District heavyweight G.M.
Premachandra, Weerasinghe Mallimarachchi, Ossie Abeygunasekera
and Gamini Dissanayake, the UNP presidential election candidate
contesting PA candidate Chandrika Kumaratunga. The Kumaratunga
administration which was engaged in negotiations with the LTTE
refrained from directly blaming the LTTE. She was also
determined to continue with the peace process at any cost.

Killed during IPKF deplyment

Former SLFP MP Abdul Majeed who represented the
Trincomalee district was shot dead at his Kinniya residence in
November 1987. The gunmen struck despite the heavy presence of
the IPKF. Although the killers weren’t found, the LTTE or some
other Tamil group could have carried out the killing.

UNP facilitates LTTE killings

Kumaratunga did not stoop to the level of
President Ranasinghe Premadasa whose government turned a
Nelsonian eye to LTTE atrocities during a 14-month long
honeymoon during which the LTTE assassinated TULF leader A.
Amirthalingam and Vettivelu Yogeswaran on July 13, 1989 in
Colombo. The fact that the assassins had arrived in Colombo in
an Air Force chopper revealed the pathetic state of affairs. The
killers had gained entrance to Yogeswaran’s residence by prior
appointment claiming that they were coming for talks with the
TULF leaders. Yogeswaran had tried desperately to bring about a
settlement between the LTTE and the TULF. After failing to
persuade the TULF leaders to visit Mullaithivu, the LTTE had
sent two assassins Vishu, a senior intelligence wing cadre and
Aloysious to assassinate them. The calmly pulled out weapons and
fired at Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran and M. Sivasithamparam after
Mrs Yogeswaran served them refreshments. Sivasithamparam
survived despite receiving gun shot injuries. Bodyguards
provided by the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) who allowed
LTTE cadres inside the Yogeswaran Colombo 7 residence without
subjecting them to security checks on the instructions of TULF
leaders, killed both gunmen. Had they managed to flee the LTTE
would never have been implicated. Instead, the attack would have
been blamed on faceless killers. The possibility of the UNP
blaming the JVP which was waging a bloody battle against the
Premadasa administration couldn’t be ruled out. But the recovery
of bodies with their pistols revealed the LTTE link. The UNP did
absolutely nothing to punish the LTTE. UNP leaders including
those who shed crocodile tears for Maheswaran turned the other
way and the honeymoon continued until the LTTE resumed
hostilities in June 1990.

Thambirajah Kandasamy of the MSD told police
that LTTE cadres weren’t checked on the instructions of
Amirthalingam. According to him, Amirthalingam was to leave for
dinner hosted by the then Indian High Commissioner at Taj where
he was to meet a visiting Indian envoy. For the TULF which
branded Duraiyappah as a traitor for supporting the SLFP, the
killings, particularly that of Amirthalingam signalled the end
of an uneasy relationship.

Even Gamini Dissanayake who was instrumental in
providing police security to TULF leaders remained silent. It
would be interesting to analyse the UNP’s conduct during the
honeymoon and also the relationship between the UNP and the LTTE.
The LTTE took advantage of the relationship to decimate rival
Tamil groups. The TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF had been at the
receiving end but once the LTTE resumed hostilities in June
1990, the UNP sought the assistance of these groups. The EPDP
too was brought in by the UNP. That relationship remained until
the PA won the parliamentary and presidential elections in 1994.